We should take it as a compliment really,it wasn't so long ago we didn't have any players worth a bean for other teams to cherry-pick!
Unless there is silly money involved, I can’t see any strategic sense for us to cash in on those players midway through a credible promotion battle to the Premier League. If anything, I think we’d look to spend this January and retain our best players. That way, if we spend several million, but don’t go up - we’ve got saleable assets like Chaplin and Davis who would depart in the summer and cover us for FFP. If I was a Leeds fan looking for signs of Ipswich struggle - arguably our best centre back (Burgess) and first choice central midfield pairing (Morsy and Luongo) are playing international football in January for potentially up to six weeks. Burgess is a guaranteed Australian choice, possibly Luongo too? Morsy less likely to depart for Egypt at the AFCON, but don’t think they’ve selected their squad yet. Leicester also affected by AFCON - a few key players likely to join it, including Daka, Ndidi, and Iheanacho.
Your guy Spanish took it all out of context. Leeds are having a good season, a few of our fans are failing to see that, instead they are concentrating on what Ipswich and Leicester are doing. One member on our board was stating forget the top two and being very negative. I pointed out a lot can happen in the second half of a season and if WE were one of the top two, HE would be fretting about African Cup, holding on to players or squad depth. It wasn’t an attack on Ipswich or Leicester, it was simply aimed at his negativity all the time. Anyway, enjoy your local Derby, I’ve cheered Ipswich on in previous seasons, needless to say I’m swapping sides.
Looks like you boys are going up , 21 points ahead & it's not even Christmas yet . Norwich have been absolute dog **** under Wagner but a mini revival recently results wise has given them a bit of confidence. Even the games we won we played badly most of the game.
Yeah, ultimately we're near the halfway point of the season and there is still a lot of football to be played. A lot of things can change or happen. If we can come out of the next three games (Norwich, Leeds, and Leicester) retaining that ten point gap to third, then we would have done very well and it sets us up strongly for the second half of the season. My main concern for us in this promotion race is that, on paper, our squad strength isn't as deep or as strong as Leicester, Leeds, and Southampton. You're all recently relegated Premier League sides that had been there for a few years. We don't have parachute payments, although I think we'll be active in the January transfer window. We've also been relatively fortunate with injuries so far, which means we've more or less had a settled starting eleven for most matches this season. And as mentioned, the AFCON and Asia Cup tournaments is likely to take a few of our key players away, possibly for several matches. That's a challenge we can hopefully overcome and fortunately it's not unique to us. How confident are you keeping some of your best players this window? I don't pay much attention to paper talk, but is there a risk somebody comes in for the likes of Summerville and Gnonto?
We've had an amazing first half of the season - beyond all our wildest expectations - and, as a club, I don't think we're getting complacent. McKenna is arguably the most talented manager we've had here for a couple of generations (certainly better than anyone since Joe Royle almost 20 years ago). His coaching and our recruitment is fundamentally key to why we're doing so well. We've got to pay tribute to our American owners too - we're much more ambitious than we were under Marcus Evans. Can we make it back-to-back promotions? It'd be a significant achievement, particularly given the high figure for parachute payments these days. I'm always nervous going into a match against Norwich, only because you guys have had our number for over a decade now (albeit not playing one another for the last few years). We're a different team now, so this is certainly the most confident I've been going into a Norwich match for several years. I don't think Wagner is a bad manager, but it's clear he's unpopular at Carrow Road - even with this recent good run of form. Maybe the game has moved on from him a bit since those Huddersfield years? I think it's going to be an entertaining game. Bit of a cliche, but form doesn't count for much in the East Anglian Derby. Hopefully our lads will play the game and not the occasion. if we keep doing what we've been doing, I'm confident we'll outscore you.
I live near Ipswich & you see lots of people wearing the colours now , the kids aren't wearing Man City shirts anymore. No idea how the game will finish but it's not our usual guaranteed win . I was at the last game you beat us in 2009 back when I had hair & a chiseled Adonis like body Regardless of the result I hope Ipswich go up you've suffered for years
I beg to differ Nuggets, I think we have very good strength in depth!! Just take the other night, with Burns, Broadhead, Taylor, Wolfenden, Walton Ladapo (meh,) etc all on the bench. Then you have players like Edmondson, Aluko, Ball, Humphreys etc that can't even make the bench!!
I'm a little nervous about what would happen if we get a few injuries though, Spanish. We've got some immediate replacements who can step up - Tuanzebe, Williams/Clarke, Taylor, Hutchinson, and Harness. But the likes of Donacien, Edmundson, Ball, Jackson, Ladapo, and Scarlett (particularly the last three) are pretty significant downgrades or unproven this year, in my opinion. We're light at left-back support and centre forward. If we were able to replace a few of those lads with better players, particularly the forward line, we'd be much better-placed in the event of a few injuries/suspensions.
